"The key to understanding the Bible is to look for Jesus in the Bible. Jesus is the hero of the Bible. If you read the Bible and don't find Jesus, re-read it! The Bible has one hero, His name is Jesus; one villain, that is Satan; one problem, that is sin; one solution, that is salvation. That is what the Bible is all about." -Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

I saw the below article on facebook last
night, and my heart broke as I read it. I have come to believe as a result of
numerous things such as this article that people of today’s world have lost
sight of what marriage truly is. At some point in time, we stopped reminding
our children that marriage was created and designed by God for a specific
purpose; and because of that, the truth that inspired this article exists
today.

If there is one topic that I have written
about more than any other, it has been this topic of marriage. That is because
I feel very strongly that our children’s future and the future of this country
depends upon what we choose to believe about marriage and family. Marriage is
so important that the first relationship that ever existed between two human
beings was the relationship between Adam and Eve, the first marriage. When God
first created marriage, He didn’t just create a bunch of different women and
tell Adam to pick the one that he liked the best. No. He caused Adam to fall
into a deep sleep, He took one of His ribs, used that rib to form Eve, and then
said, “This is your wife.” I don’t think we often enough realize the
significance of that.

Over the years, I have become convinced
that marriage is not a decision that we enter into. Marriage is a calling
brought to us by God. Whether we choose to answer that calling, is up to us.
Not only is it a calling, but marriage is a journey of faith. It is two people
coming together to serve the Lord together in a way that they never could apart
from each other. When two people get married, they are coming together to
fulfill a purpose, to complete a mission. As Zelmyra Fisher once said, “Remember
marriage is not a contest—never keep a score. God has put the two of you
together on the same team to win.”

I don’t date and I certainly won’t get married because
someone hits me with an ultimatum, because that’s not what marriage is all
about. If I do indeed get married one of these days, it will be because God
brings one very special lady into my life and says, “Marry her. I have work for
the two of you to do.” That’s because here is the ultimatum: marriage is not
about you. It’s not about not being alone for the rest of your life. It’s about
glorifying God. It’s about having an ever-present reminder that God loved this
sin-cursed world so much that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8). That’s what marriage is all about.

Do you know that love today? Have you acknowledged Jesus
Christ as the Lord of your life? If you have not, I pray that you would do so
before it’s eternally too late for you. If you will turn from all sin and trust
Christ alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

As I stated in my last post, around this time last year, I decided to
take a year off from school. It was also at that time that I changed my major.
You see, I started out in business management, but I soon realized that all the
business classes are designed to do is to teach you how to take other people’s
money; and that’s not what I want to do in life. I would still like to be a
part of the business world, but just in a different way. I want to be in the
business of supporting my local community; not in the business of making money.

The other night, I watched one of my favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. The episode is
titled “The Merchant of Mayberry” and features Bert Miller, a traveling
salesman. Bert is what my mother would call “a good ol’ soul” who really was no
salesman at all, yet the people of Mayberry loved him. I say Bert wasn’t a true
salesman because people actually had to talk him into selling them his
merchandise instead of the other way around. My favorite quote from the episode
is, “You don’t need all six of them. Why don’t you just take three of them and
a tube of glue”? Looking out for the customer, that’s what it’s really about.

Even though I worked for a popular grocery store chain for
nearly three years, I really don’t like chain stores and actually try to avoid
them as much as possible. I much prefer small businesses that are unique to the
local community. First of all, they bring something to that community that no
other place in the world has. Secondly, they support the local people. It’s
just like the song says, “sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your
name.” It feels good to walk in and have a familiar face call you by your first
name and ask about your family because they know all of them by name, as well.

Big businesses cause us to lose our sense of community,
whereas small, locally owned businesses help us to find it again. I will
forever be a firm believer in small businesses because that’s where this
country began. If you are a business owner, don’t be afraid to remain small. It
takes guts to do that. It takes greed to branch out. Quit trying to grow your
business and start trying to grow your community and impact the lives of the
local people around you.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Nearly one year ago, I made a life-changing decision to take
some time off from school to pursue a fulltime career. Nearly a year later,
while I don’t regret my decision, it has taught me some very important things.
Not only did I realize that the company I felt sure I was put on this earth to
work for wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, but I also realized that I
have no desire whatsoever to be a part of the modern business world. In fact, I
have become convinced that “the great game of business,” as one college
professor put, is not something that should ever be played by those who know
the Lord and the teachings of His Word.

We are told in 1 Timothy 6:10 that “the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have
strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with
many sorrows.” It wasn’t long after I took on my current job that I realized
the real reason that the company exists. It exists to make its owners a lot of
money. Yes, I am fully aware that we all need money to survive, but money
shouldn’t be our reason for living. The people I work for get up every day to
make money. Friends, I want a better reason for waking up than that.

The Bible doesn’t say that money is the
root of all evil; it says that the love
of money is the root of all evil. It isn’t wrong to have money. It isn’t wrong
to have a whole lot of money. However, it is wrong to love money so much that
it becomes your sole purpose for living. Therefore, if you are a business owner
and the only reason your business exists is to provide you with an income, you’re
in trouble. I realize we all need a stable income, but should that really be
the only reason we go to work every day? Think about it.

I think that, if we were to analyze the
mission statements of every business in operation in this country today, we
would be shocked at how many really shouldn’t be in business at all. You see,
if you cannot say that what you do is making a positive impact on your local
community, I don’t believe you should be in business. Even more to the point,
if your main goal is not to serve the local community around you to the point
that you would do what you do for free, you definitely should not be in
business.

I don’t know about you, but I have much
higher goals in life than making money. I want to wake up every morning knowing
that what I am about to do is going to make a difference in the lives of the
people in the local community around me. I want to wake up knowing that I am
going to a job that is good, honorable, and worthwhile. Adrian Rogers said it
well when he said, “If you really want to know how wealthy you are, add
up the things in your life that money can't buy and death cannot take away.”
Money can’t buy a person’s way into Heaven, but your life can lead them there;
and that’s certainly something that death can never take away. So I ask you,
what was your reason for getting up this morning?

Thursday, June 26, 2014

It has become commonplace in this day and time that we live
in to think that, if someone is single, there must be something wrong with
them. For some reason we have gotten the idea that, for someone to live a life
of singleness as an unmarried person, that person must be unhappy and feel
desperately lonely. Therefore we have grown accustomed to giving ourselves away
in meaningless, superficial, and short-lived relationships that often end very
tragically simply for the sake of not being “alone.” That is the only purpose
that I can see behind the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, and it is not at
all biblical. The Bible, on the other hand, teaches us that marriage is a
sacred union ordained by God. Marriage is so much more than a cure for
loneliness and depression; it is a calling by God for a man and a woman to come
together as a team to serve Him in a way that they never could apart from one
another.

Genesis 2:8 says, “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will
make him a helper comparable to him.’” Notice here that God made one specific
woman for Adam—He didn’t just make a whole bunch of women and say, “Go pick.” No.
God knew exactly what Adam needed, so He made him Eve. This tells me that
marriage is a calling. Billy Graham once said of his wife, “Ruth was my life
partner, and we were called by God as a team.”

People often wonder why it is that I don’t
date. Well, I’ll tell you why. When I get married, I don’t want to marry
someone who’s been passed around from man to man like a Gatorade bottle in
football huddle, and I don’t want my future wife to be married to a used
husband. There are certain things, certain words, and certain places that I
choose to reserve only for the one that I will someday marry, if marriage is
indeed in God’s plan for me. I don’t give just any woman jewelry. I don’t buy
just any woman flowers. I don’t call just any woman “honey” or “dear.” I don’t
treat just any woman to romantic candlelight dinners. No. Those are all things
that I plan only to do with my wife.

On my wedding day, I want to be able to
kiss my bride and have her know that her lips are the only lips that my lips
have ever touched. I want to be able to walk hand-in-hand with my wife in the
moonlight and have her know that her hand is the only hand that my hand has
ever held. I want to be able to tell my wife that I love her and have her know
that I really mean it because I haven’t said it to a half dozen others before
her. I want my wife to have the assurance that I will always be there because I
haven’t had a dozen other relationships that I left because they stopped being
convenient for me. In short, I want my wife to know without a doubt that she
has always and will always be the only one for me.

Marriage is no joke, folks. Marriage is not
a game. It’s not something that we play until it stops being fun and then quit.
No. Marriage is serious business. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Marriage
was created by God to be an ever-present picture of His endless, boundless,
unconditional, sacrificial love for us. Therefore I choose not to play the
field but to wait instead for the one God has for me. If a wife is indeed in
God’s plan for my life, He will cause our paths to cross, we will get to know
each other in a nonromantic way, and then, in God’s time, we will come together
in marriage.

I have come to believe that dating toys
with people’s emotions, rendering them incapable of making intelligent
decisions. Therefore I choose not to date, for dating is superficial. Girlfriends
come and go, but a wife stays for a lifetime. So the next time someone asks you
if I have a girlfriend, you can tell them that I don’t want one because I’m
waiting for the real deal.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Today, I want to share a story with you that a friend
recently shared on facebook. This
story that I am referring to is not a story about a heroic US soldier dying for
his country, nor is it a story about a grieving widow searching for
explanations about her husband’s death. These things are part of the story,
yes; but they are by no means the whole story. No. This is a story of love,
loyalty, and faithfulness to the nth degree. The beautiful love story of Billie
and Peggy Harris brings new meaning to the phrase “till death do us part.”

When Peggy
Harris received the news that her husband had been “missing in action” during
World War II, she was still a very young woman. No one in this world would have
blamed her if she had chosen to pursue marriage to another man. After all, she
was still young, and most would claim that she had the right to know love and
happiness and to have a family of her own. However, instead of pursuing that
worldly dream, Peggy Harris chose to hold out hope that her husband, 1st
Lt. Billie D. Harris, may
still be alive. So for over sixty years, Peggy searched for answers, for the
truth about what really happened to the love of her life all those years ago.

Today, Peggy
says simply, “Billie was married to me all of his life, and I choose to be
married to him all of my life.”[1] What love! What
faithfulness! That, my friends, is what marriage is all about. If marriage was
simply the answer to loneliness, I suspect Peggy would have remarried years
ago. No. When Peggy Harris stood at the marriage altar and vowed “till death do
us part,” she really meant it. So please join me as I say thank you to Mrs.
Billie D Harris for showing the world what true, sacrificial love is all about.

If you don’t know the
Lord Jesus Christ as Lord of your life today, it is my earnest prayer that you
would come to do so before it is eternally too late for you. If you will simply
turn from all sin and trust Jesus alone to save you, He will save you today and
keep you saved forever. You will
never be sorry that you chose to place your faith and trust in Him.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

If you are here reading this today and you are not already married,
my guess is that you probably would like to be at some point in the future. If
that is you, my goal in writing this blog post today is to challenge your
reasoning for wanting to get married. If you want to get married simply because
you don’t like the idea of spending the rest of your life alone, my friend,
marriage is not the answer to loneliness. No. Marriage is first and foremost a
journey of faith—two people coming together to serve God together in a way that
they never could apart from one another.

In the beginning, when God created the first marriage, He
said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:8,
emphasis added). Notice there that God said that he would make for Adam a helper; He didn’t say lover. Most people
today fall in love over moonlight and roses and think, “Oh, we’ll get married,
and everything will be just hunky-dory.” However, once they get married, they
find out that everything isn’t hunk-dory at all. That’s because that’s not how
marriage works, folks. Marriage is when a man and a woman come together with
the purpose of serving God and each other every day for as long as they both
shall live.

Having said all that, you may be thinking, “Well, how do
they do that”? First of all, they do it by illustrating the love of Christ for
His church, the husband representing Christ and the wife representing the
church. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Likewise, Ephesians
5:22 says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” That’s what
marriage is. It is a reminder to the world of how much God loves His people and
how we are to honor Him as our Heavenly Father. It is for this reason alone
that God hates divorce.

Secondly, God calls husbands and wives to
train up the next generation. Not only did God tell Adam and Eve to “be
fruitful and multiply,” but He instructs us in Proverbs 22:6 to “train
up a child in the way he should go, [that] when he is old he will not
depart from it.” This is why I will always believe that becoming a parent is so
much more than a biological process. Simply put, parenthood is a calling. When
God gives you a child, He expects you to bring up that child in His Word. If
you don’t do that, you have failed as a parent.

Adrian & Joyce Rogers

Lastly, when God brings a man and woman
together in marriage, He creates a ministry. Those two people are to minister
to one another, growing closer to each other as they grow closer to the Lord.
They are to pray together, study God’s word together, and serve others
together. If you are married, you ought to be thinking of ways that you as a
couple can reach this world for Christ. I will never forget hearing Adrian
Rogers tell how he and his wife, Joyce, got down on their knees together on
their wedding night and committed their marriage to the Lord. When God brings
two people together in marriage, He brings them together for a purpose. It is
up to you to find out what that purpose is and start working to fulfill it.

Maybe you are here today, and nothing I
have said makes sense to you because you have never acknowledged Jesus Christ
as Lord of your life. If that is you, it is my earnest prayer that you will
give your heart and your life to Him before it is eternally too late for you.
Simply turn from all sin and trust Christ alone to save you. If you will do
that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Today being the day after Valentine’s Day, I really wanted to write
something concerning love, marriage, and family; however, as hard as I tried, I
just couldn’t seem to find the words to say. Therefore I thought that I would
post the below video of Jim Bob and Michele Duggar sharing their life-story. If
you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve no doubt heard me say many times
that marriage is first and foremost a journey of faith—two people coming
together to serve God together in a way that they never could apart from one
another. I’ve not encountered a couple yet who illustrates that concept and
lives it better than Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

When it comes to marriage, there are two points in this
video that really caught my attention. The first one is that Michelle realized
that it was God’s will for her to marry a man who had a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ and who talked about Him in such a way that revealed his
overwhelming love for Him. Secondly, Jim Bob realized that it is God’s will for
the husband to be the spiritual leader of the home. If you are thinking about
marrying a person whose very presence does not cause you to hunger and thirst
for the Lord Jesus and His Word, I can promise you on the authority of the Word
of God that it is not God’s will for you to marry that person as they are.

When it comes to parenting, there is one major point that I
got out of this video. That one point is that parenthood is a special calling;
not something that just happens out of the blue. The Bible makes it plain that
every child is formed by the hands of God with a very specific plan and purpose
to fulfill. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations.” As God has a plan for all children, He also
has a plan for all parents to “train up a child in the way he
should go: [that] when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

When it comes to life, the one thing I took
away from this video is to “cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to
be moved” (Psalm 55:22). Michelle suggested that we let the joy of the Lord be
our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), and I couldn’t agree more. Philippians 4:4 says
to “rejoice in the Lord always.” God has blessed each and every one of us
beyond measure. Even in our darkest moments, we can still praise His name,
knowing that He will see us through.

Please take the time to watch this video. I
get something new out of it every time I watch it. I’ll even let you in on a
little secret—I’ve often said that I want to marry Michelle Duggar’s much
younger twin. When you watch this video, I believe you’ll see why. The Duggars
truly are a family after God’s own heart. I know you’re going to be blessed by
their testimony.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

To this day, I remember very well the scene with a young Shirley
Temple bouncing around a dining room full of kids, singing, “Animal crackers in
my soup. Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop.” You see, my grandmother loved
Shirley Temple and, on more than one occasion, forced me and my cousins to
watch her films; although I can’t say that we ever really minded watching them.
Today, in fact, I’m rather glad I can say that I’ve seen a Shirley Temple film
or two, even though I can only remember one scene from one movie. Shirley
Temple-Black is an American legend, and rightly so.

It has been said by former child actor Darryl Hickman that “Shirley’s
gift to show business, to the United States, and to the movie-going public was
a revelation of the creativity and the sense of joy and fun of childhood that
is in each of us.” He then added, “I don’t think any child ever did that better
than Shirley Temple.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt was even noted for
saying, “As long as we have Shirley Temple, we’ll be alright.”

Shirley Temple, with her famous curls, brought hope to American
movie-goers during the Great Depression. She later went on to serve her country
as United States Ambassador to Ghana, Chief of Protocol of the United States,
and, in 1989, she became the twenty-seventh United States Ambassador to
Czechoslovakia. For over eighty years, Shirley Temple-Black served her country
well.

Sadly, the lady once known as “America’s little darling” is
no longer with us. Shirley Temple-Black passed away Monday night at the age of
eighty-five. She is one of those very few Hollywood celebrities that we can say
spent her life well, leaving this world with no known scandal attached to her
name. As her mother often encouraged her to do, Shirley Temple truly sparkled.
It is for that reason that I plan on sharing Shirley’s movies with my children,
and I pray you will do the same.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Have you ever put any thought into the fact that the King of Glory
came to earth to trade streets of gold for roads of dirt and gravel? Have you
ever put any thought into the fact that the God of the universe would trade
eternal bliss for hunger, for thirst, for sorrow, for pain, for suffering, for
temptation, etc.? The Bible says that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He
didn’t allow Himself to be exempt from the struggle that we all face here
below. And I can only ask myself “Why”?

Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” That verse says it
all, really. God is not some distant ruler who seeks to be appeased by
outlandish rituals. He knew that our sin kept us from coming to Him, so He came
to us, wrapped in flesh. He became one of us that we might become like Him.

He walked and He talked among men. He knew
them personally. He knew them intimately. He was known as a friend of sinners
(Luke 7:34). He touched the untouchable and loved the unlovable. He sought out
the despised and rejected. He came “that they might have life,” He said, “and
that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The woman at the well found that, when we
are unwilling to search for Him, His is willing to search for us. My friend, no
matter where you are in life, Jesus wants to meet you where are. You don’t have
to get cleaned up. You don’t have to build an altar. All you have to do is
acknowledge His presence right where you are, and He will meet you there.

Do you know the Lord today? I mean, do you
know Him personally? If not, He gave His life that you may do so. Only through
the shed blood of Jesus can we know Him. If you will turn from all sin and
trust Jesus alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever. Thank God He is a personal
Savior!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Saturday night, as I was walking to my car with a coworker,
I mentioned in passing that I like to listen to podcasts from Love Worth
Finding Ministries. Little did I know that it would lead to a somewhat lengthy
discussion about our faith and how we live our lives because of it. I knew that
this guy was a Christian, but I had no idea that our belief systems were so
similar. I’ve met other people who share my same convictions about many things,
but they all live so far away. Yet here was a guy who not only works in the
same store as I do but he also works in the same department as I do. It was
very encouraging to say the least.

The next night, as I was walking out with the same coworker
(this time, also with his girlfriend), he asked me if I would mind praying with
them. Of course, I said I would. After he prayed, he told us some things that
God had put on his heart during the day. My mind doesn’t work like some people’s
do. I’ve always been better at kind of sitting back and letting everything soak
in first. So it wasn’t until I got in my car and had begun the trip home that I
began to realize, “Wow! I struggle with the same things.” And then God began to
reveal to me specific situations and circumstances were I had failed Him.

It was that night that I realized that not only are there
others out there who share our same convictions, but there are others who share
our same struggles. We are not alone on this journey, my friends. We are all in
this thing together as the body of Christ. God has put us on this earth
together to encourage one another and to pray for one another as we strive to
live for Him. So when you feel like you’re all alone, take comfort in the fact
that there is someone somewhere who shares your same convictions and struggles,
and they’re most likely closer than you think. You’re not alone.

If you’re reading this today and you’ve never acknowledged
Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life, I’m here to tell you that you’re not
alone in that, either. I was once where you’re standing right now. I had to
make a decision—was I going to choose Christ and to walk in His way, or was I
going to choose the way of the world? I can honestly tell you that I made the
right decision. I’ve never once been sorry that I chose Him. He took a life
that was broken and wrecked by sin, and He made it whole. Oh, how He wants to
do the same for you! Will turn from all sin today and trust Jesus alone to save
you? If you will do that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day
of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

Have you ever started something that you never finished? I
have—lots of times. I’m notorious for starting one thing, getting distracted by
another thing, and never finishing either one. It’s kind of like a vicious
cycle that never ends. However, aren’t you thankful that God’s not like that?!
The Bible tells us in Philippians 1:6 that God always finishes what He’s
started, and there’s no exceptions to that rule.

Back in the summer, I wrote a post that I titled “Though I Do Not See” in which I explained the importance of trusting that God still has
a plan for our lives even though we may not be able to see it at the time. At
the time I wrote that, I was going through a real low point in my life. It
seemed as though everything was spinning out of control around me, and I often
questioned the Lord about it. If He had a plan for me, I couldn’t see what it
was. But that doesn’t matter to God. You see, Adrian Rogers used to say that “faith
is like a roll of film—it develops best in the dark.” God uses the dark times
to strengthen our faith the most because, if we can learn to trust Him in the
dark hours, we should have no problem trusting Him when the sun is shining
bright.

It was that June night, in a hotel room by myself, that I
made the decision to trust that God really did have a plan for my life and that
He really was working all things together for my good (Romans 8:28). I couldn’t
see it then, but God saw; and that was good enough for me. But let me tell you,
that wasn’t the end of the struggle. A few months later, God allowed some
things to happen in my life that I would have never planned myself. In fact, I
cried out to Him, “What are you doing, Lord?! I don’t understand. It’s not
supposed to happen this way.” But if everything happened the way we thought it
should, there’d be no need for faith.

Just as everything I had ever hoped and planned for in life
seemed to crumble before me, God sent a very special person into my life to
reveal that He had something even better in store for me. Now, I’m at a place
in my life that I never dreamed would be possible. God is so good! I may not
finish everything I start, but I’m so glad He does. And the amazing part about
it is He’s not finished yet.

Do you know the Lord? Have you come face to face with the
fact that you are indeed a sinner in desperate need of Savior? If not, I plead
with you to do so before it is eternally too late for you. Turn from all sin
and trust Jesus alone to save you. If you will do that, He will save you today
and keep you saved forever.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

It seems as though every time I turn on the television there is some
advertisement trying to sell some product that promises to reduce the signs of
aging, and it sells, too. People in our culture today are obsessed with looking
younger than they really are, so they go to great lengths to dye their hair and
slather cream all over their faces at night to hopefully wake up with fewer
wrinkles than they had the day before. However, if they would only take a look
at Proverbs 16:31 they might could save themselves some time and money.

Proverbs 16:31 tells us that “the silver-haired head is a
crown of glory.” You might be thinking, “What does that mean”? Well, it means
that every gray hair that you try to cover up is a jewel meant for a crown. Every
wrinkle that appears on your face is a timeline. And put together, those
wrinkles and those gray hairs form one incredible story. One hair may tell of
the time you spent down on your knees for weeks pleading with the Lord to bring
that prodigal child back home. One wrinkle may tell of the years you spend
selflessly caring for an aging parent. That age spot may tell of all the times
you spent out on the streets desperately reaching out to the lost.

God’s Word plainly tells us that, if they are “found in the
way of righteousness,” signs of aging are nothing to be ashamed of. You see,
all those wrinkles and gray hairs tell your life story. They tell of all the
roads you’ve walked down and all the decisions you’ve made, the prayers that
you’ve prayed. So you can wear that crown proudly, knowing that you’ve earned
it. On the other hand, if those gray hairs and wrinkles were not found in the
way of righteousness, you probably do want to cover them up because they tell
of your sinful past and all of the wrong decisions that you’ve made along the
way.

Friend, have your gray hairs been found in the way of
righteousness? Do you know the Lord? I mean, do you really know Him? Have you
been to the cross? Has His blood washed you clean? If not, you can be made
whole today. If you will simply turn from all sin and trust Christ alone to
save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.Believest
thou this?

John 11:26

Have you ever had anyone tell you that, if you can’t give
them a time and date for when you got saved, you aren’t really saved? I have. But
let me tell you, my friend, that statement couldn’t be further from the truth
because there is no biblical evidence to back it up. If you don’t believe me,
let me prove it.

First, we must have a deep understanding of what it means to
believe in Christ. When Jesus said that “whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die [have eternal life],” He was talking about more than a simple
intellectual belief. Matthew 6:24 says, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me.” That, my friend, is what it means to truly believe in Christ, to
trust Him so much that you leave everything you have behind to follow Him, even
to the point of death.

So I ask you, are you trusting Jesus and Him alone to take
you to Heaven when you die? Have you acknowledged Him as Lord of your life?
Have you given Him complete control of everything you have and do? If so, you
don’t have to worry if you can’t give someone a time and date for when you were
saved. If you are trusting Jesus now, that is all that matters.

Maybe you’re reading this today and you have never placed
your trust in Jesus at any time. If that is you, I am here to tell you that
today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you will turn from all
sin and trust Jesus alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you
saved forever.

Monday, January 6, 2014

When I first started this blog nearly four years ago, there
was a certain young atheist, JD, who commented on several of my posts. If JD is
reading this today, I'd like him to know that he has not been forgotten…by me
or by God. JD, if you still have yet to fall down on your face before God and
acknowledge Him as Lord, know that God is still longing to have a relationship
with you. He loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son to live a
perfect life and then die on an old, rugged cross for sins that you had
committed. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter 3:9 that “the Lord is
not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance.”

JD, the King of kings and
the Lord of lords is longing for you to be set free from the sins that are
holding you captive. He’s even provided a way for that to take place, but you
must first accept it. All you have to do is embrace the cross. Turn from all
sin and trust Jesus Christ alone to save you. If you do that, He will save you
today and keep you saved forever.

Translate

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

Watch 180!

John 14:6

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

Joshua 24:15

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve."

Psalm 145:2

"Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever."

About Me...

Thank you so very much for reading my blog! My name is Tommy, and I am just an old-fashioned sinner saved by God's amazing grace. I've made so many foolish decisions in my lifetime, many of which I wish I could forget. However, I thank my God that He's not finished with me yet!

I realize there are many people who can write a whole lot better than I can, but no one can write about a more gracious and loving God than I can. Please join me as we explore the awesomeness of God's Word together. Again, thanks for stopping by!

Mission Statement

Since this blog is a combination of what used to be two separate blogs, I have two missions when it comes to posting to this blog. If you are a Christian, my goal is to encourage you in your personal relationship with the Lord. And if you are anyone else, my goal is to help you realize your need for Him in your life.

Thank you so much for reading!

Say an Everlasting "Yes!" to Jesus Today

As mentioned before, I have a number of reasons for having this blog; however, my main goal is for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord to come to know Him before it is eternally too late for them. If you do not know Him personally, listen closely.

I often say that the ultimate reality of life is this: God created, I sinned against Him, and then Jesus Christ saved my sorry soul. If you are here today and think you do not need to be saved, you are sadly mistaken. Adrian Rogers said, "There is no one so good that he need not be saved; and there is no one so bad that he cannot be saved."

The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." If you have ever lied, stolen, or taken God's name in vain, you are guilty of sinning against the most high God. But it does not stop at that. Jesus said that even if we look with lust at another person, we have committed adultery in our heart--God even sees what others cannot. God is a holy and righteous Judge and will not let any who are guilty enter His Kingdom of Heaven.

This means that, if you have broken God's holy Law even once, you will be in big trouble come Judgment Day. However, two thousand years ago God made provision for you and me when He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin and later die on an old, rugged cross for all the sins of the world. Friend, not only were you on His mind that day, but He was in your place.

Jesus died so that you may be set free--He took your punishment so that you would not have to. And if you will turn from your sin and trust in Christ alone to save you, He will save you today and keep you saved forever. So please say "no" to sin and an everlasting "yes" to Jesus, today!

What Would You Like to Hear?

Click here to suggest a topic that you would like to see me write about.

Awesome Quotes

"You might not want to accept Him because He'll change your life, and you'll never be the same." -Facing the Giants

"I'm not the best preacher in the world--there are a lot of people who can preach the Gospel better than I can. But no one can preach a better Gospel than I can because there's only one..." -Adrian Rogers